BIOGRAPHY KING LEONIDAS part 2

That the Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490BC did little to ameliorate the Persian threat. Leonidas and others knew that they could always return.

That is just what the Persians did. Darius died in 486BC and was succeeded by his son Xerxes. After making extensive preparations, Xerxes set out to conquer the Greeks in 480BC. Like his father, he sent messengers to the various Greek city-states demanding a tribute of earth and water to signify submission to Persia. Most accepted the offer, but Sparta and a few others did not. The Athenians killed the messengers outright while the Spartans threw them down a well instructing them "dig it out for yourselves."

Soon, Xerxes left Babylon at the head of the enormous army he had been preparing for years. Although modern historians cannot be sure how big it was, the army probably contained several hundred thousand men. Whatever their numbers, the Persians greatly outnumbered the Greeks in Sparta, Athens, and the other resisting city-states. This was an advantage they retained throughout their campaign in Greece.

The resisting city-states put aside their differences to work together for their common defense. Their only hope in the face of such overwhelming numbers was to meet the Persians at a key choke point. After missing their opportunity to stop the Persians at the Vale of Tempe, the Greeks decided that Thermopolyae would be the place to block the Persian advance into southern Greece. There, the terrain was so narrow that it would prevent anything but a small part of the Persian army from engaging the Greeks at any given time. At Thermopolyae, Persia's numbers count for very little.

Unfortunately, Leonidas was forced to meet the Persians without the use of the full Spartan army. Whether it was intentional or not, Xerxes had planned his invasion during important religious festivals for the Greeks. The Athenians were celebrating the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus and the Spartans were celebrating the Carneian festival in honor of Apollo as the Persians threatened to conquer them. But because Spartan law forbid the army from fighting during the festival, Leonidas was only able to take his personal bodyguard to fight with him at Thermopylae. Athens was also unable to commit a full force and what troops it did send had to be used to stop the Persian navy.

It was believed that a small Greek force at Thermopylae would be sufficient to hold the Persians long enough for the Greek allies to mobilize their